What is it about?
This article explains what obstructive sleep apnoea is, why it is a huge public health burden, and why it is important for patients in their operative journey. We review the evidence on why OSA is a problem, how best to screen for sleep apnoea, and how best to manage it in the perioperative period.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
OSA is a weight-related condition. As the obesity rates increase globally, so too will prevalence of OSA. This diagnosis has a big impact on patients in the perioperative period. The operation backlog in the UK is huge and presents some big challenges. This is one such challenge. Ensuring safe care for a large number of high risk patients will require careful input from a number of teams. Work needs to be done to identify how best to manage this growing cohort of patients. We propose a suggestion as to how this could be done.
Perspectives
I hope this piece introduces people to the growing concern around OSA and perioperative medicine. It seems like these two issues are going to come to a head in the years to come and I hope a number of research groups will have this as a priority to answer some key questions.
Tom Chambers
St Marys Hospital
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Obstructive sleep apnoea and perioperative medicine: a growing concern, British Journal of Hospital Medicine, September 2022, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/hmed.2022.0297.
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